Trump said earlier that Putin made a “great move” by choosing not to respond to sanctions leveled by President Barack Obama’s administration this week in retaliation for suspected election-related hacking.

The president-elect’s message was retweeted by the Russian Embassy in the US, a move that poured gasoline on the already controversial tweet.

John Aravosis, a Democratic digital strategist, said Trump was displaying “un-American behaviour.” When a Twitter user accused him of being overly dramatic, Aravosis replied that he found “skirting with treason pretty dramatic.”

Trump has been reluctant to blame election-related hacking on Russia, despite US intelligence agencies saying the country was behind the cyberattacks.

Instead, the president-elect has repeatedly suggested he would like the US to have a warmer relationship with Russia and work together on issues like combatting terrorism.